Saturday, August 1, 2009

Viral marketing, either you have heard of the term or you haven't. If you haven't, it is most likely that you'll question the term viral, as it seems dangerous. But for those who understand how it works, viral is good.

The formal definition of viral marketing is to promote information or products that other customers are compelled to give to other friends, colleagues and family. Viral marketing is also a way to promote a service or product exponentially, that is, a handful of people tell another handful of friends and the information spreads, kind of like a virus.

The beauty of viral marketing is that at times, you may not even see how it is spreading, it could be living in secrecy and then show itself suddenly in huge numbers. The 'virus', can piggybacks on other hosts and uses its resources to multiply itself. Add to that the right environment, and it will grow exponentially.

So how what are some elements of viral marketing and using it in a strategic way? According to professionals, an effective viral marketing strategy includes:

1. Giving away products or services - The term free still holds power, even after all of its use. Most viral marketing strategies give away some type of product or service.

2. Transferring Your Virus To Others - For viruses to transfer, they require human contact. And, they have to be easy to transmit. When looking at your marketing plan and strategy for your viral marketing, choose a medium that carries your marketing message easily and is easy to transfer. For example, Twitter has become a popular medium and platform for quickly transferring information. With Twitter, over 3 million messages are posted everyday.

Other ways Twitter has become useful in marketing is that it provides a venue for you to post news or updates about your company or products. You can post promotions, sales, or specials. With Twitter you can also give your brand a voice and a personality.

Another way to transfer information is through a news release announcing what you are giving away, or if you are hosting a contest, or even providing a free service. If your news release is carried by just 5% of the media you send it to, you could have not only have your URL in front of tens of thousands of readers quite inexpensively, you are transferring information at exponential speed.

3. Utilizing common motivations - Humans have a variety of things that motivate them. Marketing is about plugging into those motivations and working with them. Some of the basic motivators include the need to be popular, loved and understood. Discovering something that is free, cool or makes one feel unique, drives people to grab on to it, tell others and share 'inside information'.

4. Take advantage of others' resources - Blogs, forums, social networks, podcasts, RSS feeds, text messaging - they’re all capable of instantaneously distributing information across any and all borders and time-zones. They also allow you to reach people in a more targeted and personal way than ever before. Creating a timely and non-disruptive communication with your niche audience is the key to a successful email campaign. With the Internet, today’s shift in social media is bringing forth a whole new breed of brand influencers. Your job is to convince them on your brand’s attributes. The viral nature of the Internet can help you give your messages better reach than any traditional media ever could.

5. Encourage Word-of-Mouth Recommendations - Word-of-mouth (on the Web it's "word-of-mouse") is considered the very best advertising, because it is unsolicited. Here are some ways to encourage friends to share with friends, and use their network to promote your site.

Install a Recommend-It.com referral system. Recommend-It won't save a dismal site, but it will help your visitors promote your site to their network of friends.

Make it easy to e-mail or fax your webpage to a friend. Encourage readers to e-mail your webpage to a friend. This is similar to recommending your site, but allows your visitor to send specific content as well. This is easier to accomplish without a database-driven site.

Encourage people to forward your newsletter to friends. Do this at the end of a newsletter, and you may jog some readers to do it immediately. It's easy to do.


Viral marketing doesn't have to be complicated nor expensive. It often requires some great forethought and planning, along with follow through and patience. The results may not be immediate but the effect great.





Pamela Ravenwood is a copywriter for ArteWorks SEO. She is an award winning writer, journalist, SEO specialist and strategic planning consultant. To learn more about this search engine optimization company, visit www.arteworks.biz.